Sarah’s Blog

The Microbiome: Our Bodies’ Bugs and How They Keep Us Healthy

“Microbiome?” you ask. Most people I chat with about the health of their Microbiome don’t really know what it is. Let’s start there. Your Microbiome is a unique community of microbes or shall we say bugs. They exist all over us and get this… we carry around 100 trillion of these little creatures. Only 10% of us are human cells. The rest are microbes that assist with many functions. We can have healthy synergistic microbes and not so helpful ones too. Some suggest that many of us have more bad than good, which can wreak havoc on the body and mind. Stay tuned as I’ll share with you how to cultivate the good ones.

Science is just beginning to crack the surface on the wonderful world of human microbes. Yet here’s what we know so far on how our microbiome can keep us healthy:

Immunity: In February 2013 the European Review for Medial and Pharmacological Sciences wrote a review article, “The Role of Intestinal Microbiota and the Immune System” (1). It showed that our gut microflora not only helps in digestion, but also can influence our immune system. A gut rich with good microbes protects the gut lining which protects us from pathogens getting into the blood stream, stirring up trouble. When this system is out of balance it can contribute to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Probiotic therapies can have beneficial effects.

Weight Management: Research has just started in this field yet there is evidence to suggest that obese individuals have a different microbiota than individuals with a healthy weight. Researchers at the University Federico II, Naples, Italy wrote an article, “The Gut Bacteria-Driven Obesity Development (2).” They stated, “The ‘obese microbiota’ seems to be able to increase dietary energy harvest and favor weight gain and fat deposition”.

Digestive Health: There are many diseases of the digestive tract where the majority of our microbes reside. Much research suggests that a disruption of our gut microbiome can have negative health effects. Just this year, researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified fungus (not a helpful microbe) as a “key factor” in Crohn’s Disease (3). Additionally, researchers at The Institute of Medical Science at The University of Tokyo, suggest that a disruption of the relationship between host and gut microbiota can contribute to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (4).

Sleep: Abnormal sleep such as in shift workers or frequent flyers can lead to a shift in the microbiome, creating metabolic disturbances such as obesity and glucose intolerance (7). It could be imagined this may extend to insomniacs as well. Imagine how a good night’s sleep can have the inverse effect! Will keep you posted on that research when I find it.

Mental and Emotional Wellbeing: A 2015 article in Scientific American, Mental Health May Depend on Creatures in the Gut, suggest that gut microbes make neurotransmitters and metabolites that can have effects on the brain and our moods. Much of the current research has been done on mice but with promising results for humans. John Cryan, a neuroscientist at University College Cork in Ireland said, “That dietary treatments could be used as either adjunct or sole therapy for mood disorders is not beyond the realm of possibility,” (8).

So how do we optimize our Microbiome?

Our first burst of these healthy microbes come by way of the birth canal. As babies we are sterile until we pass through the birth canal getting a huge hit of healthy bugs. Additionally, the milk from our mother’s breast supplies us with an additional inoculation.

As we move through our days many things can disrupt our microflora, including:

Eat whole and nutrient dense organic produce and animal products. Broccoli is one of the best!

Load up on Fermented foods such as Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Miso, Whole Organic Yogurts (no sugar added), Kefir (like yogurt), Kombucha (a probiotic drink) and other naturally fermented vegetables such as pickles (ensure they aren’t just soaked in vinegar but are properly fermented).

Most people can benefit from a good quality probiotic. Ensure it has 9 or more different strains with over 12 billion CFU’s (Conly Forming Units).

Use a water filter with charcoal carbon filter to remove chlorine. Santevia is a good brand.

Get a good night’s sleep. For more on that, read Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson.

Microbes don’t respond well to stress so finding ways to deal with stress are important. Why not try mindfulness-based meditation? Calm is an app you can download to your phone for free. It includes a series of short mediations to get you started. How about cultivating gratitude? To me there is no better way to reduce stress. A few minutes thinking about someone, something or someplace you feel thankful for can go a long way.

And of course MOVE! I haven’t found the research on this just yet, but just as exercise has a good effect on our wellbeing it may just do the same for our microbiome.

There you have it folks. Wishing you and your Microbiome lots of health and vitality.

Case Western Reserve-Led International Team Identifies Fungus in Humans for First Time as Key Factor in Crohn’s Disease. http://casemed.case.edu/newscenter/news-release/newsrelease.cfm?news_id=402

The gut microbiota and inflammatory bowel disease. Goto Y1, Kurashima Y, Kiyono H. 1aInternational Research and Development Center for Mucosal Vaccines, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo bMedical Mycology Research Center, Chiba University, Chiba cDivision of Mucosal Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

The idea of this blog came to me a few weeks ago while I was in NYC. My girlfriend and I decided to go to Soul Cycle. I’d never been and was curious about this growing spinning phenomenon. Soul Cycle turned out to be like NYC on speed. Picture this: a very dark room with strobe lights, being assaulted with blaring music and a hyperactive instructor yelling out instructions that were impossible to hear. All I could discern was push harder. I walked out barely able to walk and in a state of what I can relate to as shell shock. To me this was the last thing I imagined the native NYC’ers needed. Yet they seemed to love it. It was the last thing I needed considering I was trying to keep up with New York. I asked myself, where do these people find balance? Where do they restore and recharge?

Basically for me, health is a balance of activity vs rest, be it physically, mentally or emotionally. Without balance we can experience, depression, anxiety, inflammation, lowered immunity, joint and muscular pain, sleep challenges, heart, gut and other organ issues. The list can go on. Put another way, a car without fuel and oil will eventually stop and break down.

When people come to me with weight challenges, pain or generally looking to get healthy they expect to get their butts kicked and go on a diet. Many believe that in order to achieve their goals they need to push harder, sweat, sacrifice and ensure they pushed themselves. For many of my mature adults this may be counter productive, especially when not balanced with downtime. As much as I full heartedly believe in (and love it myself) movement, activity and being productive, it can only be helpful when balanced. We also need to find ways to slow down, be mindful, still our minds and bodies, have fun and in doing so help the body replenish.

I have a question for you? What is your balance between restorative activities such as meditation, sleep, downtime (not including T.V), relaxing play and spending time with people who make you feel good and workouts, work, a very active monkey mind, stress of any sort – mental, emotional, financial? If you aren’t sure, try recounting your day or week. How much of it felt restful, relaxing or restorative? How often did you feel uptight, stressed, overwhelmed, angry or even down?

There are plenty of joy-filled techniques you can use to calm, restore and replenish your body and mind. Just a few are:

Sitting quietly in the grass.

Going for a walk in nature.

Using various mediation apps. I particularly like the one called Calm.

Lying quietly for 5 mins and simply focusing on your breath. Or simply practicing deep and long breaths for a few minutes.

Spending time with the people who make you feel good.

Minimizing your time with energy vampires.

Finding something that brings you joy and ease. For me it’s making dinner with friends.

Finding laughter is always an amazing energy boost.

Sometimes just taking a few minutes to look at the sky reminds me to chill out.

Today I’d like to offer you a simple breathing mediation (6 min video) on how to get some downtime into your daily routine. Click here: Breathing Meditation.

Not only do relationships make for a good life but a very healthy one by the sounds of it. Robert Waldinger from Harvard shows us how important our relationships are to our health and wellbeing in this 12 min Ted Talk on What makes for a Good Life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness.

From my experience, I would have to agree. The older I get the more I realize how much my relationship have on my happiness quotient. For me it’s maybe even more important then what we put in our mouths.

Hi All, Just finished reading Dr. Axe’s book, Eat Dirt. Super read and left me wondering how good my probiotic supplement is and if it’s the right one for me. Apparently, there are many many different strains of probiotics in the body and each one has a different job. Certain strains can keep our immune system healthy, others can help maintain healthy gut flora and some can ease digestive challenges. If your interested in learning more on gut health and probiotics, here’s a link to Dr. Axe’s short Probiotic Guide. Dr. Axe’s Probiotic Guide. Chalk full of information. :))))

As a trainer, I am asked a lot about diet. Over my career I’ve noticed many clients, friends and family cringe with disbelief when I talk about consuming good quality fats such as coconut oil and butter. I can understand, as we’ve been told for the past 50 years that these foods cause heart disease and can make us fat. Well, science is now turning those ideas on its head. It now seems as though we can consume good quality fats and cholesterol rich foods without fear of heart disease or obesity.